Roundabout Textures with 12wt

Have you been watching our quick videos on Tuesdays, called Tuesday Textures? Every Tuesday, we share a quick method to add texture to your projects on Facebook and Instagram. At the beginning of the month, we shared a twin needle vide (see the blog post here). The last 2 Tuesdays, we have done textures using 12 weight thread and either grid interfacing or creating your own grid with a quilt stencil. Let’s recap!

First, I wanted to make a quilted panel with a bold quilted crosshatch pattern. I fused a Cotton Couture magenta solid to one side of Bosal In-R-Form Plus (a double sided fusible foam). Then I fused quilters grid interfacing to the other side. The quilters grid is just a very light interfacing that is pre-marked in 1” increments. Quilting grid is manufactured by Bosal Foam and Fiber as well as by Pellon. Ask for it at your local quilt shop!

I filled my bobbin with Aurifil’s 12wt thread in a springy green and used a 50wt thread in the top. Then I straight stitched along the grid so that my bobbin thread is the main attraction! Here is a video of how I did it:

Tip: I set the stitch length to 3.5mm so that the thread shows up!

This is a simple solution if you want to jazz up a pouch or bag – follow that grid!

This is what the texture looks like:

Now, for the other side of my Roundabout Bag, I wanted to use a grid again, but create it a bit differently. Here are my supplies:

In the video below, you can see how I created the grid with a quilt stencil (this grid was 1” as well).

Here is how I created the quilting pattern:

The first illustration shows the light gray marked grid, then the first step of stitching the diagonal grid (in red) through the marked grid intersections.

The second step adds more stitching so have an inner diamond – first, mark at ½” from center of diamond, then stitch through.

In the final step, stitch a straight line through the center of the diamond (OK, it’s an on point square!)!

It is really pretty easy, and the result looks far more complicated than it really is.

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With my 2 quilted panels, I am ready to create a Roundabout Bag – here is the pattern:

Here is the finished bag:

By the way, you can't see it in the pictures, but I chose a green zipper to tie in with the thread - this is a fun bag!

Your choice of quilting can really up your game – be adventurous and just give your next project a bit of easy texture and some fun thread!

Remember to look for our Tuesday Textures on Facebook or Instagram - until next time - keep on quilting!

-Kris